Why data centers now belong on the critical infrastructure list

Missile and drone attacks that took out cloud data centers in the Middle East underscored a critical vulnerability in the modern economy: reliance on digital infrastructure that sustains competitive advantage and operational continuity for corporations, nations and militaries. 

The outages and downstream disruption were a preview of a new form of strategic and operational risk. Data centers have long been the backbone of the digital economy. What is changing is the scale of dependence as AI workloads dramatically increase the compute power required to run businesses, supply chains, and national security systems. 

Artificial intelligence has moved beyond business applications and into the core of warfare and national security. Last month, The New York Times reported that AI is “totally integrated” into the collection of intelligence and its use in strategic decision-making and military operations. Even if AI models are not directly firing weapons, AI-enabled analysis now plays a central role in how modern militaries gain visibility, find insights, and drive action.

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